Don't Blame Bush For Gas Price Rise

July 6, 2004|William L. Canning Ocean Ridge

Re the June 26 letter, "Bush friends, gas prices linked," which tried to link the following "coincidences" to the Bush presidency:

First, the stock market unraveling began in March 2000, and had nothing to do with either Presidents Clinton or Bush. Bush was not sworn in until Jan. 20, 2001. The stock market fell because investors bid up the prices of many companies that had no business plan, no profits and no prospect of profits. That bubble had to burst, and it did. Then 9-11, and a recession. It started rising in 2003 because of the Bush policies.

Second, gas prices are not controlled by the federal government, so the letter writer's comment that Bush was repaying his campaign contributors in the oil industry is ludicrous. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and large independent oil producers control the prices, along with supply-and-demand factors. The letter writer tries to make the same point again when he attempts to make a connection between Bush announcing his candidacy for re-election and the recent rise in gas prices. Also ludicrous. Whenever there is a danger of a supply disruption in the Middle East, oil prices and consequently gas prices rise.

He then says that the administration's ideology for greed is turning our nation into a Third World economy. Our economy, the greatest the world has ever seen, is growing our gigantic gross domestic product at a 4 percent annual rate, real wages have grown over 13 percent year-over-year, and inflation and interest rates are at historic lows.

Then he takes on the outsourcing of jobs. The most quoted source for outsourcing is the Forrester Research report of November 2002, which projected that 3.3 million jobs would be outsourced from 2000 through 2015, or about 220,000 a year. The fact is that we have the highest proportion of our population in the workforce by far than any other country in the industrialized world. We import two to three times as many jobs as we export.

There may be reasons not to re-elect President Bush, but the letter writer stated none of them. The writer ended by asking people to connect the dots, but all of his dots are deflated balloons.